Scribd
Upload
60 views

Asne Lesson Plan Format: Identifying and Writing Different Types of Leads I. Overview and Rationale

This lesson plan outlines an activity to teach high school journalism students about different types of story leads. Over two class periods, students will first analyze examples of summary, anecdotal, and question leads. They will then write their own leads for fairy tales using two different styles. The goal is for students to understand that the lead is important for grabbing readers' attention while introducing the key details, and that different lead styles are more appropriate for certain types of stories. Students will present their fairy tale leads and receive feedback on effectively utilizing style and concisely communicating the main idea.

Uploaded by

Philip Jayson L. Lestojas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
60 views

Asne Lesson Plan Format: Identifying and Writing Different Types of Leads I. Overview and Rationale

This lesson plan outlines an activity to teach high school journalism students about different types of story leads. Over two class periods, students will first analyze examples of summary, anecdotal, and question leads. They will then write their own leads for fairy tales using two different styles. The goal is for students to understand that the lead is important for grabbing readers' attention while introducing the key details, and that different lead styles are more appropriate for certain types of stories. Students will present their fairy tale leads and receive feedback on effectively utilizing style and concisely communicating the main idea.

Uploaded by

Philip Jayson L. Lestojas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

ASNE LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Sharon Nolan
North Canyon H.S.
Phoenix, Ariz.
Identifying and Writing Different Types of Leads
I.

Overview and Rationale


a. This lesson is intended for 9th-12th grade journalism students. Most
journalism students spend a great deal of time learning the inverted
pyramid writing style as well as the 5 Ws and H. However, it is difficult for
students to find ways to include all this information in an informative and
interesting lead. Reviewing different types of leads and providing
examples will model the different ways to approach the all important lead.

II.

Goals for Understanding


a. Purpose: Students will learn the different types of leads - including
summary, anecdotal, contrast, staccato, direct address, and question.
b. Students will recognize appropriate leads depending on the type of story.

III.

Essential Questions
a. How does a story catch the readers attention while providing necessary
information?
b. When do readers lose interest in a story? What information are they
looking for?
IV. Critical Engagement Questions
a. When picking up a newspaper, what catches your attention?
b. What makes you want to read a story? What makes a story
interesting?
c. What are you looking for in the first few paragraphs of a story?
d. What different types of leads have you noticed while reading the
paper?
V. Overviews and Timeline
a. Activity 1 (One 50-minute class)
i. Ask students, What makes a good lead? Lead a class
discussion. Many students will bring up the 5Ws and H. Others
will bring up the idea of interest. Further discussion by altering
the question to be, What makes an interesting lead?
ii. Distribute two versions of the same story. You may cater this to
your class by choosing any two versions of a story. Many
journalism textbooks also contain an article comparison. You
may use those same articles and just focus on the lead. Here is
an example of two stories with different leads, both regarding Al
Franken being sworn in as a U.S. Senator:
1. http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/
07/frankens_gain_wydens_loss.html (question lead)

2. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitolbriefing/2009/07/franken_finally_swornin_and_h.html?hpid=news-col-blog (anecdotal lead)


iii. Have students read both stories and lead a class discussion on
how the stores are similar and different. Which article did the
students like better? Which lead was more interesting? How
would they categorize this story (news, feature, opinions, etc)?
Students should recognize that summary leads are by far the
most common for hard news stories. Feature stories tend to
explore alternative lead types.
iv. Introduce the different types of leads: summary, anecdotal,
contrast, staccato, direct address, and question. Show
examples of each lead and discuss the advantages and
disadvantages.
v. Optional homework portion: have students look in newspapers
or online papers to find two versions of the same story using
different leads. Have students bring in articles the next day.
b. Activity 2 (One 50-minute classes)
i. Start the class with a quick overview of the types of leads
discussed yesterday.
ii. Have students share the two versions they found for homework.
Only take the time to share and discuss leads (not the entire
story). This activity should take no more than 15 minutes.
iii. Students will now write two leads of their own based off popular
fairy tales. They may choose any fairy tale of their liking
(Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, Snow White, etc).
The teacher may want to have fairy tale books available.
Students may choose which two types of leads on which they
would like to focus. Give students time to review the fairy tales
and write their two leads.
iv. Have students share their leads during the last 10 minutes of
class. Recognize the most creative/fun/original leads.

VI. Assessment
a. Homework can be graded by individual teacher classroom rules. In my
classroom, this is assessed as complete or incomplete.
b. The two news leads may be graded on any of the following components:
a. Two clearly different leads with the type of lead indicated

b. Free of grammatical and mechanical errors


c. Concise (preferably fewer than 30 words)
d. Non-summary leads still include the main idea of the story
e. Will grab the readers interest
VII. References
a. Pope, Charles. Frankens Gain, Wydens Loss. Oregon Live. 07 July 2009. 07
July 2009
<http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/07/frankens_gain_wydens_
loss.html>.
b. Bacon, Perry, Jr., Franken Finally Sworn In, and Hugs Ensue. Weblog Entry.
Capital Briefing. 07 July 2009. The Washington Post. 08 July 2009
<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitolbriefing/2009/07/franken_finally_sworn-in_and_h.html?hpid=news-col-blog>.

You might also like